University of Washington The central objective of this research project is to examine the relationship between differing regional geographies of cross-border interdependency, their attendant patterns of transnational governance, and the implications of both for older forms of national governance. The intent is to focus on the question: does the emergence of quasi-autonomous transnational regions represent the erosion of governance or just its political-geographic reorganization? Using theories of regional agglomeration in part, a comparative approach is used to determine how transformations of governance relate to the economic geography of trade convergence, traded interdependencies and untraded interdependencies in two emerging transnational regions, Transmanche (French-English) and Cascadia (U.S.-Canada). The research will involve data analysis of trade flows, in-depth interviews with administrators and planners, and a questionnaire survey of businesses. The results will bring fieldwork results to bear on questions of the 'end of the nation-state' and the impacts of globalization.
